Wow! How did that happen?

I'm not sure how it happened but it's been 2 months already since I posted here.

So much has happened... all great!  To make it easy to follow, I'll break things down into a couple of different posts.

First, Christmas was really nice this year.  Christmas Eve started a month long vacation for me.  One of my good friends from Daejeon came up that night and we went to Myeongdong Cathedral on Christmas morning.

The service was nice, albeit a bit short.  Apparently, just due to the sheer numbers of people who attend there each Sunday services are limited to about 45 minutes so that there is enough time for one group to leave and the next arrive for the hourly services.

Later, we had brunch, rested a bit, then went to another friend's apartment that evening for a Christmas party... complete with fruit salad for dessert:

Yes, that's a very camera shy Korean hiding behind the fruit!

The Monday after Christmas (the 27th) I hopped on a plane for an absolutely INCREDIBLE 22 day trip to Thailand.

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The Anglican Cathedral, Seoul

This morning I visited the Anglican Cathedral here in Seoul.

It was a little difficult to pull up information since the website is in Korean, so I thought I'd list info here to help anyone else looking for it.

English services are held every Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m.  in the Crypt Chapel located under the main church.

The Rt. Reverend Mark Trollope is buried in the Crypt Chapel and his remains lie under a copperplate engraving of him by Francis Cooper which can be seen in the top photo above and the one below.

 Between 50 and 60 worshipers were present.  The vicar is a likable Irish gentleman with gray hair and a beard who has obviously enjoyed quite a few church potluck dinners, exactly what you would expect from an Anglican vicar.  The liturgy used was Rite I from the BCP and was fairly straightforward.  There was brief "children's lesson" added in immediately before the reading of the Gospel.

The Cathedral is located across the street from City Hall.  To get there, simply take subway line 1 to the City Hall station.  Exit via exit 3 and walk straight forward.  The church is only 50 meters or so from the subway stop and set about 50 meters back from the main road.  You'll see signs pointing the way.

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Spring!!

Well, it's been another month already! I still can't get over how quickly time's been flying by. I've been here for 7 months already-- wow! And spring is FINALLY here!!

This month has been a month of holidays. First there was St. Patrick's Day. Very little happened on that day, but on the Saturday following there was a big St. Patty's festival up in Seoul. A couple of thousand people were there, including the dozen or so of us who went up together from Daejeon. But when you have all-you-can-drink free Guinness beer, you should expect a crowd. There was also free Irish food, Irish step-dancers and lots of free crazy hats for people to wear. It was a lot of fun.

The following morning the group of us from Daejeon had breakfast at a nice little french restaurant in Itaewon.

The next weekend, we celebrated Passover with one of the Jewish teachers here. It was rather informal, with the running joke being that it should be officially named "Passover in Korea: Whatever works!" There were about 15 of us altogether: some Jewish, some Christian, some Buddhist, some agnostic.

One of the most memorable parts of it to me was when one of the teachers surprised everyone by chanting the "4 Questions" in Hebrew.



Last weekend was Easter. The weather warmed up, so Easter Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. I had the window open enjoying the nice breeze and could hear some kind of "event" happening at City Hall, which is only about 1/2 a block from my apartment. Now, while it's not uncommon at all to hear things happening there as Koreans are really big on having rallies for all kinds of reasons I was a bit surprised to hear the music to the song "Via DeLarosa" clearly wafting through my window. It was a bit of a nice Easter surprise.

A group of us from my school attended Easter Mass at the only Catholic church in town that has an English service.

I must admit that it's a bit funny to be considered part of the "Outreach to Immigrant Workers". It took me a while to find info an English mass when I arrived so here's the info for anyone who may need it:

Daehwa-dong Catholic Church
Daehwa-dong Sundang (beside Duri Wedding Chapel)
Mass held each Sunday at 4:00pm
Reconciliation each Sunday at 3:30pm
Phone #:010-2010-3907

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